لعمرك ما ضاقت بلاد بأهلها … ولكن أحلام الرجال تضيق

Tag Archives: Jan25

Over the last few days, I have been hearing from my Malaysian friends and friends of friends quiet a number of wrong facts about what is happening in Egypt. Such as:

Morsi being ousted is a War on Islam.

Morsi has been very supportive for the main issue that interest the Islamic world such as Palestine and Syria.

Morsi has been very democratic with Egyptians.

Poor Egyptians they do not understand democracy.

Egyptians are influenced by the Americans and Israelis.

The protests in Egypt were supported by the Syiah in Iran.

Etc…

I understand that if someone is not following the situation since the beginning or he did not read thoroughly about the history of the Muslims Brotherhood to understand their actions or did not read on the modern history of Egypt (At least) and suddenly wake up on the news that the elected president was ousted. It would be easy to feel bad about it and to believe whatever so called facts mentioned earlier.

So I want to address some of the wrong facts here and I will make sure that I quote real incidents to prove my point and whenever resources are available I will refer to them.

Before going into addressing those claimed facts, it is important to point out something. Egyptians (I mean majority of them) have been used to the Islamic movements such as the Muslims Brotherhood (MB), the Salfists and other Islamic movements sending messages in the meaning (Claiming) that they represent Islam. We (Egyptians) are used to them saying; we are defending Islam, when we apply our agenda the country will flourish because that is what God wants. If you are against us then you are against Islam. If you do not vote for them, then the question will be; Why? Don’t you want the law (Shariaa) of God to be applied? Don’t you love Islam? Etc..

To be honest also, those messages are not always sent in such direct meaning. Sometimes they are sent directly, sometimes indirectly. But the thing is, those are the kind of messages being sent.

As we are in Egypt used to that. The Egyptians response to that will be usually; “Whatever!”. Egypt is the country where Al-Azhar is. Al-Azhar has been the most trusted resource of Islamic Teachings in the world. Thousands of Malaysian and Muslims from across the globe are studying there each year. That’s the real culture of the Egyptians who understand the Islamic teaching from the resources and are teaching them to the whole world. I just wanted to clarify this because when I am writing this blog, I am not against Islam. I do my prayers every day, I love being Muslim and I am proud of it. I actually think that people like Morsi are destroying the good image of Islam. [How? That will be the topic of another article]

Now going to the claimed facts.

1. Morsi has been elected democratically and Egyptians are turning their back to democracy.

Theoretically, yes Morsi was elected democratically but if you understand democracy as a ballot box and that’s it! After that you should stay silent till the next elections. That will be a different type of democracy than the original meaning of it.

Democracy is representing people through representatives from them. Democracy is listening to people needs, responding to them, being transparent to them. Democracy means that the people are the source of Authority. So as an Elected leader if you failed them, lied about all your promises to the people before elections, spread a speech of hatred against them even made a public prayers (Dua) against your people asking God to destroy them or approved sending messages asking Egyptians to fight each other then you are simply losing the authority that was given to you by the people.

That was what Morsi did. (Refer to Why Egyptians are revolting after 1 year of Elections?). In respond to that, the people asked him to call for a public referendum on an early Elections and if the Egyptians disapproved it, then he can continue his term. Morsi ignored that totally so the people had no other way but to march in millions peacefully asking him to step down and call for an early elections where he is still allowed to run again for it.

So in short, Egyptians are not turning their back to democracy. That is the core of the political process. To watch over your leaders and if they are off track, you push for them to go back. If they continue on ignoring then you return the authority to the people to elect new leaders.

In such way, new Leaders will understand that they cannot lie to the people or the people will force them down. That is the way to build a country where the leaders truly belong to the people. It can be a long way but we must build it right.

2. What happened in Egypt is a military coup. Egypt is turning into a military rule.

3. What happened against Morsi is a War on Islam. America and Israel are behind that.

The easiest way to think about something is to think of conspiracy theories. I would call that, the lazy mindset. Which is to recall a huge danger to avoid thinking of the real problems.

90% or more of the Egyptians are Muslims. Over the past 14 century, Egypt has been the last block standing against any threats over Islam. The idea of Egypt to have a role in the prosperity of Muslim countries or the world in general is something embedded in the Egyptian culture and you cannot understand that unless you understand the long history of Egypt over thousands of years. That would need some kind of cultural anthropology to explain.

However, People in Egypt revolted against Morsi because they are now speaking the language of food, electricity petrol and water supplies. The language of freedom and sharing the authority of Egypt’s future. The language of saving the Egyptian blood that is being shed every while. The language of unity that Morsi has been breaking all the time. The language of ignoring the people needs that are simple and reliable. The language of Morsi thinking of his party interests before the country’s. The language of security in the streets and the language of a country that protects the law.

You may say, it is America and Israel that are blocking the future of Egypt so Morsi will look weak in the eyes of his people. Again it is easy to think the lazy way instead of looking at the real problems. Morsi ignored all the advice that came from other political parties and people leaders. Most of the people who worked with him and are not from his party resigned saying that he doesn’t listen to them at all and he announce decisions without even consulting them at all. Though Morsi’s promise to the people before elections was to work together with those people and share with them the burden of building Egypt’s future. That was one of the real reasons he won the elections. But he simply lied about that and drove the country to the Fall economically.

4. Morsi was taking a strong stand in important issues that concerns the Islamic world such as Palestine and Syria.

For the case of Palestine refer to the article published in Haaretz. The link is in the previous paragraph.

Regarding Syria, Morsi in his visit to Russia clearly stated that His stand from Syria is no different from Russia’s stand. Watch to this part of his speech here. Knowing that Russia is clearly supporting Al-Assad Regime in Syria you can understand how Morsi was actually supportive to the Syrian people. Morsi only decided to withdraw the diplomatic relations with Syria when U.S decided to support the Syrian opposition militarily. In short words, Morsi was kissing asses for Russia but when Putin turned him down, he decided to kiss ass for U.S. If you are living in the middle east and you understand the complications of the political situation in the region, you will know that withdrawing the diplomatic relations with Syria is such a stupid move.

5. The protests in Egypt are support by the Siyah in Iran.

First of all, I want to clarify that I carry all respect to the Siyah and my different religious background should Not influence my respect to them or any human being or even our cooperation on the understanding or respect to each other.

Talking politics, Morsi himself took such closer steps to Iran than Mubarak ever did. The diplomatic relations between Egypt and Iran has been in trouble for long years especially after Al-Sadat the previous president of Egypt (60’s-80’s) hosted the Shah of Iran after the Islamic revolution in Iran. Al-Sadat rejected to hand over the Shah to Iran and hosted him in Egypt. When Al-Sadat was murdered, Iran celebrated that. They built a huge statues for the murderer and put it in a main public square named after him in Tehran. Since then, the diplomatic relations are not going very well between Egypt and Tehran plus other reasons concerning the security of the gulf and other staff. There is no Egyptian Embassy in Tehran or vice-versa. Mubarak never visited Tehran nor the Iranian President did to Cairo.

So what did Morsi do when he became the president? He did visit Tehran and Ahmedi Nejad did visit Cairo. All unresolved issues seemed to be forgotten and not even discussed. Even the Egyptian regime decided to facilitate the Iranian tourism to Egypt.

Then here comes the double standards. Demonstrations against Morsi were set to start on June 30 months ago if Morsi did not show any respond to the public demands. Few weeks before June 30, it was clear that millions of Egyptians were to march against him on June 30. At that time Morsi relations with Iran were improving pretty well. There would be no justification for Iran to support the protests. Iran never dreamed of such improvement in the diplomatic relations between the 2 countries. Even Egyptians in general feel sensitive to relations with Iran due to the previous mentioned incidents. It does not make any sense that the Egyptian youth would accept any support from Iran since they are actually seeing Morsi going in the wrong direction in his moves with Iran. The claim is simply invalid.

Morsi was loosing people’s support day after day. So what did he decide to do? Few weeks before June 30 (The announced date for demonstrations) instead of responding to the public demands, he continued on ignoring and decided to go with the Egyptian extremists who were mad at him before because of what he did earlier with Iran seeking their support. He attended their public conferences where they curse the Iranians and the Siyah in public. Almost indirectly calling the ignorant public to murder any Siyahs that they see because they are a danger on Islam as they claimed. Morsi stayed silent whenever such speech is spoken in front of him and did not act as a political leader who have a minority of Egyptians who are Siyah and he is responsible to preserve their dignity and public respect. Or as a leader of a country like Egypt, you cannot just approve cursing other nation’s people. For example you may not like the American policy, but it is not logical or proper to keep cursing the American people for that just because they are citizens of a country that you do not like their leaders or you are both having different religious backgrounds. Morsi did not act as a true Leader of Egypt he just wanted to get some Extremists support even in that cheap way.

What we were afraid of happened, few days after Morsi has been doing this. For some ignorant public that was like a sign that the country is against the Siyah even they are Egyptians. 4 Egyptians Siyahs were beaten to death in the streets few days later. Those were Egyptians. Those were citizens who should have equal rights as anyone else.

Morsi was just totally immature in his actions. Till now Morsi did few public speeches were some of them lasted for hours but he did not even mention something about those 4 Egyptians who were brutally killed. In my eyes, this is not a president. He is not even suitable to be a school teacher where he is teaching young generations principles in life.

That was just another reason for Egyptians to remove such irresponsible President.

Those were 5 main claimed facts that I saw spreading. I hope that this blog would open our minds to read more and not just build assumptions based on one resource or from what you read anywhere.

If you find that there are other claims not addressed here. Please comment on this post so that I will address them or send me a private message if you feel more comfortable that way.

The Egyptian President Morsi was ousted yesterday (July 3) by the Army. 1 year after being elected as the first president after Jan 25 Revolution.

Is the Army taking over power in Egypt? Is Egypt turning into a Military Rule?

Yesterday, Army Chef Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced the following road map:

“a- The temporary suspension of the constitution.
b- The Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court to take the constitutional oath before the SCC General Assembly.
c- To hold early presidential elections with the SCC Chief Justice being in charge of the caretaking of the State during the transitional period until a new president is elected.
d- SCC Chief Justice to be entitled to issue constitutional declarations during the transitional period.
e- To form a strong and capable national government of technocrats enjoying all authorities to manage the current period.
f- To form a commission that includes the full spectrum and experiences to revise the proposed amendments to the constitution, which is temporarily suspended.
g- To urge the Supreme Constitutional Court to expedite the approval of the draft electoral law of the House of Representatives and commence the preparatory procedures of the parliamentary elections.
h- To draw up a media code of ethics that provides for the freedom of the media and ensures professional rules, credibility, impartiality and elevation of the higher interests of the State.
i- To adopt executive measures empowering and merging youths in the State establishments to become partners in the decision-making, as assistants to ministers and governors and various executive posts.
j- To form a higher commission for national reconciliation from figures, who represent all orientations and enjoy credibility and acceptance of all national elites.”

In Simple words, a call for early presidential election has been set. Till the new President is elected The Chief Justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court to take the constitutional oath as Egypt interim Leader. To form a strong transitional National government to hold the executive power till the next elections.

Why the Army took such move?

The Army took that step mainly as a respond for the millions of Egyptians who protested in the streets since June 30 asking Morsi to call for early presidential election (Refer to: Why Egyptians are revolting after 1 year of Elections?). President Morsi did not show any kind of response to the millions of protesters in the streets. He did not even offer to appoint a new cabinet which has been a demand from the people for months already due to its poor performance and shallow vision. Morsi was very impressive in ignoring the millions in the street and only considering what the Muslims Brotherhood is telling him to do. Due to that, on July 1st General Command of Armed Forces Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced a 48 hours period for all parties to resolve the crisis or he will announce a road map after consulting the people’s leaders and the Egyptian Youth. That simply meant, if Morsi did not respond to the people’s demands, the Army will take a move to force that.

The following day, in his speech, Morsi looked very nervous and he still ignored the people demand of early elections and he mentioned that he may consider appointing a new cabinet. That was totally below the aspirations of the millions of the protesters in the streets. There clear demand was to call for early elections. On July 3rd, millions of Egyptians continued to protest in the streets asking Morsi to call for early elections.

The ultimatum issued by the military expired on Wednesday afternoon (July 3) and Morsi did nothing. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) Called for a meeting with the People’s leaders in the streets, leaders of the 2 main political parties in Egypt including The Muslims Brotherhood party (Freedom and Justice Party) though FJ Party rejected the invitation. The SCAF also invited the religious leaders, Sheikh Al-Azhar and the Pope to attend the meeting to set the new Road Map to follow. The meeting came out with the decisions that was mentioned earlier. (The Official announcement)

Why the Army had to interfere? Why he did not let the People to do decide by themselves?

Millions of Egyptians were protesting peacefully, however Morsi did not show any kind of response. Morsi himself in his speech on July 2nd said he will defend his position with blood. The Muslims Brotherhood and the extreme Islamists who are also supporting Morsi have been repetitively announcing that they will defend Morsi with blood and they are ready to fight.

When you have a situation where Millions of Egyptians are asking peacefully the president to call for early elections and you have a president with his supporters saying they will defend his position with blood. There is no other way to save shedding bloods than the Army to take a move in a respond to the People’s demands.

What are the chances that the Army will take over power turning Egypt into a military rule?

There are concerns out there of course, however I have a different belief. I believe in the Egyptian People. In Jan 2010, millions of Egyptians marched into the streets and in 18 days they forced Mubarak to step down after 3o years of corrupting the life in Egypt.

When the power was handed temporarily to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), and they showed a slow response to the people demands in handing over the power to an Elected president. Millions of Egyptians protested in the streets and forced the SCAF to speed up with the Elections. After Morsi was elected, the Muslims Brotherhood thought that they can ignore the people again and their demands. Morsi lied about all the promised he made to the people. They did not understand that the real authority comes from the people. Now in 4 days the millions in the streets peacefully forced everyone to listen to their voices and the Army to take an action in support for that.

The current SCAF is different from the previous one and though I believe that they understood the lesson over the past 3 years with what happened with Mubarak, SCAF then now Morsi, if they did not learn then the people are the guarantee that everything should be in place. (Important Read: The Egyptian Military’s Playbook)

When the revolution started in Jan 25, 2010, Egyptians decided to build the country on the right basis of Freedom, Justice and Dignity. It is either we accept half solutions now or we believe in the power of people and continue the struggle to build a great nation.

We started the struggle and we are not going to stop until we have leaders who respect us and who are working with the people towards an ambitious vision for the future.

What is happening in Egypt is an inspiration for the people all over the world. We must believe in ourselves. We are not to accept half solutions. We are not to accept Leaders who lie to us.

If you are not an Egyptian, you may wonder why Egyptians are revolting after one year of electing their current president?

Should not they give him a chance to prove his abilities and give chance for the economy to boost? How would the economy progress when the country is revolting all the time?

Does not democracy mean that you should let the president continue his 4 years term and if he fails, do not elect him again?

Millions of Egyptians went into the streets yesterday (June 30) protesting against President Morsy after 1 year of being elected as the first President after Mubarak’s regime fall down. The protesters are asking Morsy to step down and call for early elections.

But Why?

Last year when the presidential elections were held, few candidates run for it where mainly Five of them stood a chance to win that elections. Four of them are from the opposition at Mubarak’s time and the last one was the last Prime Minister before Mubarak’s regime fall.

The first round of elections showed quiet similar results between the Five candidates with the Muslims Brotherhood’s candidate (Morsy) and Mubarak’s prime minister (Shafiq) ranked first and second respectively. As many Egyptians oppose Mubarak’s prime minister to be the president after a revolution against that regime, many as well do not feel comfortable voting for the Muslims Brotherhood (MB) Candidate. MB has not shown any willingness to be transparent about their financial operations and many Egyptians did not feel comfortable towards their so called “Islamist” Agenda for Egypt.

Many Egyptian (including me) decided to boycott the 2nd round as a sign of rejecting both of the candidates. My last article before this which is written in Arabic was just before the first round of elections last year where I wrote that under any circumstances I will not vote for the MB candidate. Simply because I do not trust them.

Morsy knew that he is going to lose the 2nd round of elections if he could not convince those who voted for the other candidates in the first round to vote for him instead of boycotting or directing their vote to the other candidate (Shafiq).

Morsy started going to all media channels and meeting all political parties and leaders trying to get their support. In a meeting in Fairmont Hotel in Cairo, Morsy signed on a written promises that he said he will deliver if those leaders were to support him and call their supporters to vote for him in the 2nd round.

Those promises were mainly about the way he will rule Egypt if he become the president, building a democratic regime, keeping the unity of the Egyptians, working will all political parties from all background and not following a strict MB’s agenda and finally committing to the goals of the Jan 25th Revolution.

The 2nd round came and most of the political leaders called their supporters to vote for Morsy based on the promises he agreed to deliver. In the 2nd round Morsy got 12 millions votes (comparing to 5 millions in the first round) which put him slightly ahead of the other candidate.

Morsy won the presidency and many Egyptian were relieved that Mubarak’s prime minister did not win. It was time for Morsy to start working with all the Egyptians, building a great nation together. However Morsy did choose a different way. He worked mainly with his group the Muslim Brotherhood only. He appointed a cabinet which included either independent people or others from the Muslim Brotherhood. He made a modification 3 times on the cabinet, increasing the number of the MB’s ministers every time. The same happened with appointing the mayors. He passed a new constitution for Egypt which followed a conservative Islamist agenda and does’t guarantee proper rights for the Egyptians and give chances for a new dictatorship. Most of the other parties opposed and resigned from the committee that was writing it. However Morsy still proceeded with it.

That’s beside other cases such as; whenever there will be small demonstrations against him, the Muslims Brotherhood would send their supporters to fight with them in the streets. On occasions, protesters were killed from both sides as a result of that. The worst was that Morsy ignored what the MB is doing and acted like there is no Law in the country.

Due to his bad leadership, Morsy could not control the country and it fell under many economic crises in the supplies of electricity, water and Petrol in many occasions. The prices of the food kept on increasing and Morsy just kept on asking for new loans from the western countries. Morsy looked lost and without a solution and in the same time failed to listen to the opposition and the people on appointing a new cabinet that have better solutions for the economic crisis.

Morsy also let the conservative Islamists to spread a speech of hatred against Egyptians opposing him utilizing the religion to build such speech and he did not stop that. In occasions he was present by himself and he did not act as a president of all Egyptians who should not let some conservative Islamists spread such hatred speech against millions of Egyptians.

Without going into more details, Morsy has failed miserably to listen to the Egyptians and ignored them on all ways possible. The only way to give every dictator a lesson is to force him to step down if he was too stupid to consider his people.

In Egypt, we revolted against Mubarak in order to build a country based on Freedom, Justice, Dignity and Equal opportunities for everyone. Egyptians will not accept a mediocre president anymore. The world is moving too fast around us. New technologies are being developed everyday, and if we leave a dull president for 4 years to try his miserable agenda, that will be too much time for Egypt to lose. The Economy will not stand, the people will not stand and each day you lose on the wrong direction, you are left behind years as a Nation.

A president in Egypt will succeed if he really believes in the power of his people and could communicate his ideas to them.

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Note: Most of Morsy’s supporters will not agree with what is written here. But, that is the reason millions are in the streets.